Читать книгу Walking Cincinnati - Danny Korman - Страница 13
Оглавление4 Mount Auburn
Cincinnati’s First Suburb
Mount Auburn offers multiple sweeping views of the city below.
BOUNDARIES: Sycamore St., Loth St., Wellington Pl., Highland Ave., Liberty Hill
DISTANCE: 3.2 miles
DIFFICULTY: Strenuous
PARKING: On-street parking is available on Milton and Sycamore Streets.
PUBLIC TRANSIT: Cincinnati Red Bike (cincyredbike.org) has nearby bicycle rental stations at 1422 Main St., 500 E. Liberty St. in Prospect Hill, and elsewhere. Metro buses (go-metro.com) serve this area.
After watching Over-the-Rhine undergo a major transformation over the past decade, Cincinnati’s first hilltop neighborhood is poised for its moment on the revitalization stage. Mount Auburn, which saw virtually no new housing for decades, is now experiencing a rush of building rehabs and new construction. Thoughtful community leaders are making sure the neighborhood is home to people of all incomes, races, and ages. Mount Auburn, tucked between the still-booming Over-the-Rhine and growing Uptown neighborhoods, is made up of multiple parts. To the south is Prospect Hill, geographically more a part of Over-the-Rhine. To the east are streets with houses dating from 1870 to 1910. To the west is lower Mount Auburn, a somewhat forgotten area with an earlier building stock more closely related to Over-the-Rhine. In the middle is Auburn Avenue, the most visible symbol of the neighborhood’s efforts to sustain itself. Despite some architectural losses in recent years, Mount Auburn retains much of its 19th-century housing stock. While the area lacks an official business district, the Auburn Avenue Corridor Strategic Development Plan calls for Auburn Avenue to become the commercial center of the neighborhood.
Walk Description
Our walk starts at Milton’s Prospect Hill Tavern, which clings to the steep corner of Sycamore and Milton Streets. Stop in if the climb up Sycamore Street and subsequent hillside streets proves too much. Walk up Sycamore past Boal Street, and cross at Mulberry Street. Take Mulberry to Main Street. On the right is the base of the Main Street Steps, which intersect with three streets above and eventually summit at Jackson Hill Park, which offers a sweeping panorama. Climb the steps here to see for yourself, and then descend the steps to return to Mulberry Street. This was originally the site of the Mount Auburn incline, opened in 1872.
Continue along Mulberry Street. Rehabs, gutted buildings, and new town houses stand close together. Incredible views open up over the city. Mulberry narrows as it nears Rice and Loth Streets on the right. Before beer baron Christian Moerlein moved to his final home on Ohio Avenue in Clifton Heights (Walk 7), he lived in the mansion at the northeast corner of Mulberry and Loth Streets from 1870 to 1882. The once fine Christian Moerlein House is currently a shell. The Greater Cincinnati Redevelopment Authority got involved with the house around 2012 when it faced demolition, funding the purchase and stabilization of the historic structure. Hopes remain high that the former mansion will find a new purpose.
Turn right on Loth Street and walk two blocks north to Thill Street. Ascend the steps across the street into Inwood Park. The 20-acre scenic and rolling park, a former stone quarry, was the source for the foundation stones of many of the earliest buildings in Clifton Heights to the west of Vine Street. A granite monument (lacking its bronze plaque) commemorates Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, who founded in Germany what later became the Turner Society, a gymnastic club that doubled as a nationalist political group. The park’s most noted feature is the lake. The pavilion is one of the earliest buildings still standing in Cincinnati’s parks. Follow the footpath that veers to the right and proceed up the hill to the roundabout at Wellington Place. The top of the hill offers a great view of St. George’s Catholic Church (looking north).
Follow Wellington Place to Auburn Avenue. On the right is One41 Wellington (2309 Auburn Ave.), a $45 million housing project that includes 60 renovated apartment units and a massive new complex that includes more than 250 units. It replaced a rare (at least in Mount Auburn) Tudor Revival building that was a commission of Samuel Hannaford & Sons in 1930. The original cast- and wrought-iron fence still surrounds the property.
The Mount Auburn Historic District, which extends along both sides of Auburn Avenue roughly between Ringgold Street and William Howard Taft Road, intersects here. It is significant for its collection of Federal, Greek Revival, Italian Villa, Romanesque Revival, and Georgian Revival styles. The houses date from 1819 to the turn of the 20th century and are associated with the prominent Cincinnatians who built them. The district suffered a big loss in 2014 when the former Mount Auburn Methodist Church at the southwest corner of Auburn Avenue and E. McMillan Street was demolished, despite community opposition and several months of hearings with the city’s Historic Conservation Board. The site of the Gothic Revival structure remains a vacant lot. Across the street, the Elmore W. Cunningham House (2448 Auburn Ave.) faces a similar fate. Cunningham, a 19th-century meat-packer, hired Anderson & Hannaford (Samuel Hannaford) to design his home. The 1860 mansion is currently for sale as a redevelopment (demolition) site.
On the northwest corner of Auburn Avenue and Wellington Place is Graveson House, a massive asymmetrical composition with a neo-Baroque entrance. Turn right on Auburn Avenue, then turn left on McGregor Avenue, and left again on Auburncrest Avenue for a brief detour to Gorham A. Worth House, one of Cincinnati’s most important historic homes. The central section of the Federal house was built in 1819, with the wings added in about 1860. Worth was a cashier at the Cincinnati branch of the Second Bank of the United States and a poet.
Retrace your steps to Auburn Avenue and turn left. Both 2210 and 2212 Auburn Ave., with their mansard roofs and elaborate dormers, are Second Empire in style. Cross Albion Place and Gilman Avenue. On the left is the former Mount Auburn Firehouse, now the property of Christ Hospital across the street. Cincinnati architect Harry Hake designed the Georgian Revival main hospital building (1930). The glow of light from the tower is a local landmark.
Cross Earnshaw Avenue; 2112 Auburn Ave. is an excellent example of Richardsonian Romanesque. Cross Southern Avenue to reach the William Howard Taft National Historic Site, the most noteworthy of the Mount Auburn houses. A National Historic Landmark and Cincinnati’s only National Park Service site, the Greek Revival house (built around 1840) is notable for being the birthplace of William Howard Taft, born in 1857. Taft was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and subsequently chief justice of the Supreme Court (1921–1930).
Cross Bodmann Avenue. Across the street is the Adam Riddle House, set on what may be Mount Auburn’s highest point. Attorney and state legislator Adam N. Riddle built the house in 1857. The current owners have lovingly maintained and improved the condition of the Italian Villa–style house. Walk to Dorchester Avenue and carefully cross this tricky intersection where Auburn Avenue and Sycamore Street meet. Part of the race sequence in the 1993 in-line skating movie Airborne was filmed on the curve.
Across the street, the Flatiron Building takes full advantage of its location. The building has faced an uncertain future in recent years, though community leaders have helped to stabilize the structure. Built in 1857, it housed the Flat Iron Cafe in the 1950s. The Italianate Henry Martin House was built in 1870. In 1888 Henry Martin built the Mount Auburn Cable Railway, which ran from downtown up Sycamore Street, along Dorchester Avenue past the impressive cable house at 2001 Highland Ave., and then down Highland.
Follow Sycamore Street east, and turn left at Walker Street, which offers more stunning views of the valley below from a row of rehabbed homes. Walk to 1810 Walker St. and turn left on the footpath to Ringgold Street. Walk through Filson Park to Young Street. On the northeast corner is God’s Bible School & College. A mix of Italianate, Queen Anne, and Colonial Revival styles are found in the buildings that comprise the campus.
Surviving buildings in the Mount Auburn Historic District date from 1819 to the turn of the 20th century.
Turn right on Young Street toward the Young Street Steps at Pueblo Street. Descend the steps past Boal Street to Milton Street, and turn left. Milton Street is a steady climb from Sycamore Street to the west, and ground zero for the Prospect Hill Historic District, which is generally bounded by Liberty, Sycamore, Boal, and Channing Streets and Highland Avenue. It includes more than 200 buildings, which together comprise a community of architectural significance. The buildings are mostly tall brick structures with long, narrow floor plans. Among the architectural styles are Italianate, Queen Anne, Federal, and Greek Revival.
Proceed on Milton Street. Four identical Greek Revival two-story row houses (533–539) have setbacks in front for gardens and to provide some breathing room. From here, turn right and descend Hiram Steps. Turn left on Corporation Alley (more of a secluded street than an alley) to see a variety of 19th-century cottages, Italianate and Greek Revival houses, and carriage houses. Follow Corporation Alley to Highland Avenue and turn right. Ahead is the George Hunt Pendleton House, a National Historic Landmark built in 1870. French Second Empire in style, the building is beautifully situated at the summit of Liberty Hill. The house is notable for being the home of Senator George Hunt Pendleton. He and his committee met here in 1882 to draft the Pendleton Act, the start of the Civil Service Commission.
Walk down Liberty Hill (north side) past one beautifully maintained house after another to Young Street. Just past the Liberty Hill split are two small frame houses (442 and 440), believed to date back to the 1830s. Walk past Cumber Street and Caitlin Alley to 412 Liberty Hill. Built in 1867, the First District Public School was converted into condominiums in the 1970s, an early adaptive reuse project. Walk to Broadway and turn right, uphill to Milton Street. Ahead is the Vogeler (334–336 Milton St.), a festively decorated apartment building with etched glass in the doorway. Turn left on Milton Street, and walk to admire 322–326 Milton Street, three Second Empire town houses with mansard roofs.
Turn left on Mansfield Street, returning to Liberty Hill. Turn right and walk to Sycamore Street. On the northeast corner is the John Walker House (1600 Sycamore St.), a splendid Greek Revival town house built in 1847. Head uphill one last time and look for the geometrical wrought iron fence in front of Sycamore Street Studio. Inside is the sculpture studio of Ted Gantz; outside is his secret garden.
This walk ends where it began, at Milton’s Prospect Hill Tavern. The neighborhood bar opened Halloween 1992 and welcomes all kinds, including people who walk in the door with this book.
Points of Interest
Milton’s Prospect Hill Tavern 301 Milton St., 513-784-9938
Christian Moerlein House 18 Mulberry St.
Graveson House 2343 Auburn Ave., 513-421-3900, schooltheatre.org
Gorham A. Worth House 2316 Auburncrest Ave.
Mount Auburn Firehouse 2142 Auburn Ave.
Christ Hospital 2139 Auburn Ave., 513-585-2000, thechristhospital.com
William Howard Taft National Historic Site 2038 Auburn Ave., 513-684-3262, nps.gov
Adam Riddle House 2021 Auburn Ave., 513-205-9520
Flatiron Building 1833 Sycamore St.
Henry Martin House 1947 Auburn Ave.
God’s Bible School & College 1810 Young St., gbs.edu
